


Live my life... and see what “normality” is for me

by Yurika_Schiffer



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Bodyswap, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Slow Build, friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-06 01:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4201935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yurika_Schiffer/pseuds/Yurika_Schiffer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he wakes up that morning, Kei realizes he's not quite himself— and that this really isn't his room.</p><p>When Tsukishima and Kageyama switch bodies, things are not exactly the way Kei thought they would be. If they are better or worse, that's something he will have to find out by himself.<br/>[will most likely never be finished, sorry!]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Before you start reading, there are a few things I would like to tell all of you readers.
> 
> First of all, the update will be _slow_. And when I say slow, I mean it. I've been facing this writer block for a whole good two months at least and so I'm bringing you the first part of something that will probably be even longer if finished. I post it mainly as a way to have feedback: about my writing, about the way I characterize the characters, about the whole idea of bodyswapping two characters, and so on. So any comment will be gladly welcomed and appreciated! When I finally manage to get rid of that block and to write again, I promise I will do my best so you can have the next part(s?) as soon as possible ~
> 
> Secondly, this contains a hella lot of headcanons and many of you may or may not agree with them, and I completely understand this. Those are my headcanons and I wanted to write about them and with them in mind. If you want me to develop on one of them, you can always shoot me an ask on my [Tumblr](http://yurika-schiffer.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Thirdly, as usual this was supposed to be "shippy"; but seeing as it's the very beginning, this probably doesn't even count as a proper friendship for now. That's why I didn't use a slash but only an ampersand. Depending on where I go with the rest of the story, this will or will not change. So consider the "pre-relationship" tag as "pre-friendship" for the moment, please!
> 
> And to finish, for now; I only re-read this once so there are probably many mistakes left and I apologize for them! Don't hesitate to point them out, so I can correct them and learn from them ~ English isn't my main language and I tend to mix up the tenses, too.
> 
> I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Have a nice day or night and see you around ~

Kei started to become aware of the real world again and he knew he was about to wake up enough that he would not be able to fall back asleep. But everything felt like it was way too early, even for a week day morning. His body felt heavy and weirdly not the same. He didn’t want to move, didn’t even want to open his eyes. But the alarm clock kept on ringing and the strident sound was starting to get on his nerves. And also to terrify him. Why the hell would he be afraid of an alarm clock? Apart from the fact that it wasn’t the ringing he was used to, there was nothing wrong with his alarm clock. Yeah, it was just his alarm clock producing high-pitched sounds that it wasn’t supposed to produce. Everything was normal.

Except it wasn’t.

His hand finally went searching for the loud object on his bedside table but was only met with air. Where was the table? He opened his eyes and looked for it. Only to see that there weren’t any table on the side of his bed. Well, “his” bed. Let’s talk about “his bed”. The dark blue of the sheets was absolutely not something he would let his mother put on his bed. He preferred other colours and even if he did let her put blue sheets on his bed, it would have been a lighter blue and not that dark one.

He turned around to find the offensive object which didn’t stop its loud cries. It was set on the head of the bed, alongside others stuff he didn’t remember owning. Once he turned off the alarm clock, he noticed the time it was. Four in the morning. No wonder everything was “too early”. He sat properly on the bed and put his hand and his face, sighing.

He took a look at the room. This was not his room. It was too empty, too impersonal – and God knows his own room wasn’t that personal either – and just. Too not-his-room. Now the question was: whose room was it, then?

He shook his head, trying to wake himself better. When he looked up again, his vision was blocked by what appeared to be long dark hair. Long dark hair that definitely wasn’t his either.

Now he was starting to panic. He touched the hair, trying to determine if it was a wig – he really hoped it was one – but the slight pain of pulling on the bangs told him it was not. He looked at his hand. Well, at the hand in front of his eyes. The skin was tanned and the fingers seemed to be shorter. And he was pretty sure he didn’t trim his nails recently. So these were not his hair and his hands.

He removed the sheets from his legs. Well, whosever legs it was, they were pretty nice legs, he had to admit. Tanned, long, muscled and – he noticed as he touched them carefully – hairless. Their original owner took good care of them. The arms seemed to be the same, there were only some bruises here and there.

Kei sighed again. He tried to look for something that could at least tell him whose body it was. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t find an explanation as for why he was in someone else’s body, so the least he could do was find the identity of the owner.

He noticed a phone laying near the alarm clock and grabbed it. It was an old model, even for a flip phone. He opened it and was glad to see it was already on. No PIN code needed, that was probably the best thing to happen that morning. The background picture was a default one so that didn’t really help him to get information about the owner. He went through the menu to check the contacts; maybe that would help him.

And it actually did help him. As well as it did not.

There were. Five, no, six contacts. Talk about popularity. The two first ones had been added an underscore to let them stay at the top of the list. “Mom” and “Dad”. The next one on the list was “Hinata”. A pretty common name, as of itself, but the two next ones – after one named “House” – told him that it probably wasn’t a random stranger. “Sawamura” and “Sugawara”. Seeing the three names in here meant likely that he was in one of his teammates’ body. That or the world was very small.

It didn’t take him too much time to take a guess and find the right answer. The long dark hair only left three possibilities but the legs didn’t lie.

Kei was in Kageyama’s body.

Of all the weirdoes in the Karasuno team, he had to end up in the most awkward one. Kei sighed for the nth time.

He tried to move the bangs from his eyes, as they prevented him from seeing. Speaking of which, there was at least one advantage he could find to the situation. Kageyama’s eyesight. It was. So clear. Everything appeared so neatly. And he didn’t even have glasses on. It kind of felt like going from an old television with blurry pictures to a flat high definition screen. He had the fucking HD in his eyes. That was so cool and so different from his usual eyesight. Maybe this weird situation would let him keep the eyesight? That would be rad.

He looked at the phone screen again and added his contact information to call his phone. Hoping he would have forgotten this time again to turn it off before going to bed.

The device against his ear, he waited. One ring, two rings. Three rings. And then, a muffled yell.

“TSUKISHIMA?!”

Wait. Was that how his voice sounded like to other people? He thought it was a bit higher. Well, it wasn’t all that bad either. Some people had it worse.

“Yeah. And if you’re in the same situation as I am, which I’m guessing you are, please refrain from yelling. You’re going to wake up my parents. And my brother. Which would be actually worse than waking up my parents. Please do not wake up my brother.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do then? Also your family are heavy sleepers, I tripped twice when trying to find your stupid phone.”

Ouch. That was going to hurt when he would get back to his own body. If he ever got back to his own body. There was no way to know if this was a temporary or a permanent situation.

“What the fuck’s going on?”

“How would I know, King? I just woke up to that.”

“Don’t call me King, you piece of shit. Just find a way so things go back to normal. And before morning.”

“Yeah, sure, let me just click my fingers and get my magic wand so I make us switch body back.” He deadpanned. “Seriously, how do you want me to do that? I told you, I don’t even know how this happened. Don’t expect me to know how to fix that.”

Kageyama groaned on the other side of the line.

“What are we going to do? We can’t skip practice so—“

“Nor school.”

“—so what the fuck do we do? Like, do we actually try to act as if nothing happened and deal with everything or what?”

“That’s the only thing we can do for now. Good luck with that, by the way, my brother is obnoxious in the morning.”

“Obno-what.”

“… Forget that. Anyway. How far is the school from here?”

“One-hour-and-a-half walk.”

“…. Seriously? You couldn’t pick a school closer to your house? Don’t answer that” he added. “Is there a computer or something where I could check the path? Because your room is as empty as your head.”

“Bastard. And I think there may be one in the living room. There isn’t a password.”

“Okay. Also, Yamaguchi usually shows up around six. At least I’m sure you won’t get lost.”

Kei heard the setter hummed and the line became silent. He sighed. The next morning was going to be awful. His parents and Akiteru would probably worry about “his” strange behaviour. But Yamaguchi would likely to guess that something was wrong and that it wasn’t him.

He told Kageyama so. And said that the best thing to do would be to explain at least the pinch server what was going on. Kageyama agreed. They talked about some other things that were to do, mostly on Kei’s side (especially about his glasses). Then Kageyama reminded him that if he wanted to be on time for practice, he should get prepared and go.

“One last thing before you hang up King. Don’t drink milk. Just don’t.”

“Hah?”

“First I never drink milk in the morning. And second, you’d end up throwing up.”

“Ew.”

They hung up after Kageyama promised he wouldn’t drink milk for breakfast.

Kei got out of the bed quickly and looked around for clothes. Kageyama’s uniform was hanging on the wall near the bed and so he went grabbing it and went out of the room to find the bathroom. Fortunately, the doors had labels and he found it easily.

He didn’t waste time and took off Kageyama’s pyjamas to get into the shower cubicle. He washed himself as quickly as possible, closing his eyes when he reached a certain part of Kageyama’s body, trying not to think about _how disgusting the simple of idea of doing that was, as it was somebody else’s body._ When he finished, he dried himself and put on the clothes. And was then faced with Kageyama’s long hair.

Kei was used to his own short hair, which he didn’t really brush or comb since it was short enough to pass as a good haircut and not just some bad bed hair. But Kageyama’s long hair was another thing. The towel had let it all messy and this wouldn’t do it. He searched for a comb or a brush and when he found one, he tried to fix the dark hair. He hurt himself at least three times, pulling too much or too hard each time. There were knots at the back of his head and he never had to deal with that.

Once he managed to get every hair flat on his head, he quickly brushed his teeth – noting that Kageyama had no holes and perfectly white teeth.

He went out of the bathroom once he put on socks and tried to find the living room. He needed to know where to head when he would go out. He found it on the first try – thanks to the labels – and sat in front of the computer. It was a pretty old machine and he clicked his tongue when he saw the OS the computer was running on when he turned it on. The screen was dusty and so was the keyboard. The only keys that weren’t too dusty were the a, e, y, o, l, v and b. He used a tissue to clean the keyboard a little and opened the navigator.

It took him around ten minutes to find what he wanted and to remember the biggest part of the trip. He went back to Kageyama’s room and grabbed the bag after checking that everything he could need was in there. Shooting a glance at the clock, he knew he didn’t have time for a breakfast. He hoped Yamaguchi would have too much food for lunch that day as he usually had. He left the house and started using his memory to find his way to the school.

After fifteen minutes, he realized how much he missed his headphones. Everything was silent around him as it was still way too early. How one could wake up so early was still something Kei had trouble understanding. Maybe that was why Kageyama was so grumpy though. Nobody would be happy after waking at four in the morning.

About an hour later, he heard heavy footsteps coming closer to him and turned his head to see what was arriving. He cursed under his breath. Hinata.

The miniature kangaroo passed him running and went on for a little while before stopping abruptly. He waited where he was with wide eyes. When Tsukishima had caught up with him, walking at his own pace, Hinata eyed him suspiciously.

“Why aren’t you running?”

“Not in the mood.”

“You’re always in the mood to race me, even when you’re not! When you see me coming, you always start running no matter your mood!”

“Well, not today.”

The short human battery frowned and started observing him from all angles, as if to find something that would explain “Kageyama”’s lack of competition spirit that day.

“Are you sick or something? You look fine but you’re acting weird; not that you aren’t acting weird usually, you are, but you’re acting weirdly in your weirdness!”

“Says the overexcited jumping shrimp.”

Hinata stopped walking and looked at him, shocked.

“What the heck, Bakageyama? You just sounded like Tsukishima, you’re creeping me out!”

Kei couldn’t help the smirk that came at that remark. Unfortunately, the shrimp saw that and pulled a face, repeating that he was creepy today.

They walked to the school in silence, as Hinata was wary of him and Kei never really talked in the morning.

When they reached the gymnasium, Hinata opened the door to see if anyone was here already and greeted their seniors when he saw them. Kei stayed a bit behind, not really interested. He turned around when he heard people arriving. Yamaguchi and Kageyama were talking together. When Kageyama noticed him, he dropped the conversation and ran to him.

Kei had to admit that seeing himself within the eyes of someone else was… disturbing. He could already spot any flaw on his skin. And there was the frown on his face too, that was pretty weird. He never frowned that much. Also he became awfully aware of the eight centimetres between them. The King was short. And he was tall.

“Ah, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi called when he joined them. “He told me about what’s happening and… That’s so weird!”

“Why are you calling Kageyama ‘Tsukki’, Yamaguchi? Did you get Tsukishima’s eyesight during the night?” Hinata laughed when he turned to greet Yamaguchi.

“Well, you surely didn’t get anybody’s height during the night.”

“Seriously what the fuck Kageyama?! You talk like Tsukishima since this morning!”

Once again, he couldn’t help the smirk that spread on his face. He saw Yamaguchi bite his lip, trying not to laugh and Kageyama frowning even more.

The rest of the team gathered to see what was happening.

“What’s so funny?”

Kei looked at Kageyama who glared back at him and he sighed. The King did expect him to explain everything. Well, they had to explain – the others would have noticed during practice anyway – and it wasn’t that grumpy idiot who would manage to do so. Better explain it himself.

But how do you tell something like that without it sounding weird?

“Tsukki and Kageyama sort of… switched bodies, it seems!”

You let Yamaguchi explain for you, that’s how. Nice job Yamaguchi!

“What? As if we’d believe somethin’ like that!” Tanaka huffed. Then, after a moment, “Actually yeah. Tsukishima’s never frowned like that and Kageyama’s never sassed somebody so it’d make sense actually.”

“No wonder he wouldn’t race this morning!” Hinata yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Kei. “But how’s that happened?!”

“If we knew, do you think we’d still be like that, dumbass?” Kageyama snapped.

And how weird did it feel to hear his voice coming out like that, all angry for no reasons and using such a poor insult! If Kageyama was going to stay in his body, he would have to teach him some better words to use.

“So, what you’re saying… Is that Tsukishima” Sugawara started, looking at the two of them “Tsukishima is Kageyama, and Kageyama is Tsukishima? Wow… This is going to be… confusing.”

“The question is, can you still play even if you’re not in your own body? Because I guess things are pretty different..?” Sawamura asked.

“We can always try.” Kei said flatly.

Kageyama grumbled about how he would have to adjust to the eight supplementary centimetres he had gotten and the poor eyesight he was now gifted with. Kei clicked his tongue in annoyance at the last remark. He didn’t need to be reminded of that. But he guessed that it did make a big difference for the setter. Compared to his perfect eyesight – how was it even possible to have such a good eyesight, Kei wondered –, this surely was a big unusual thing for him.

Kageyama, Hinata, Yamaguchi and Kei went to the locker room to get changed. Hinata kept glaring at them. Yamaguchi was smiling, apparently amused by the whole situation and not so disturbed.

As they were changing, Kei shot a glance at Kageyama, who was currently taking off his pants. Kei pinched his nose and Hinata and Yamaguchi laughed. Kageyama tried to quickly put the sweatpants on, cheeks red.

“Of all the underwear I have. You had to choose this one. Seriously, King?”

“I took the first one I saw, okay?! Your brother was talking at the same time and he speaks way too fast…”

Well, he couldn’t argue with that. Akiteru did talk too much in the morning. But that didn’t excuse the fact that he took the dinosaur boxers his brother gave him for his last birthday. Kei sighed.

When Hinata finished laughing on the floor, they headed back to the gymnasium together. The others had started training in the meantime. When they entered, everyone stopped and Sawamura approached them with Coach Ukai. The Coach looked quite annoyed but also resigned.

“Can you play your usual position or do we have to switch?” Coach asked, frowning.

“I think Tsukishima would have trouble setting” Sawamura said. “We’ll have to adapt but I think things can work out.”

As it turned out, Kageyama only needed a few minutes to adapt his tosses to his new height and power. Some of them still failed but his natural ability made it easier.

Kei, on the other hand… Even after twenty minutes, his receives were still as bad as usual – well, still not worse than Hinata’s – and every attempt to block was failed. He didn’t really care, if he was honest. But the others tried to understand why he never succeeded.

At some point, Sugawara, who had watched him carefully, came to him.

“I think the problem is that you don’t jump high enough. Kageyama jumps higher than that, usually; and you’re not used to put more power in your jump since you’re so tall.”

“I can’t jump higher than that.”

 _I won’t try to jump higher than that_ , Kei thought. He was using as much power as he did in his own body and had no intention of using more than that. Being in the body of that volleyball freak didn’t mean he had to become a volleyball freak.

Sugawara looked at him, hands on hips, seemingly trying to find out if he were telling the truth. If he did find out, he didn’t say anything.

The rest of the morning practice went on pretty normally.

When the team was back in the locker room, Kei had to face the teasing from Kageyama’s choice of underwear one more time. He gritted his teeth silently, trying to ignore his loud seniors. He was going to make the King pay for this, when they would be back in the right body.

“Oh, but what are you two going to do? I mean, Tsukishima is in prep’ class… Going back to a normal class won’t be too hard, I guess. But Kageyama…” Sugawara let his sentence trailed off.

Kei snorted. The King, one of the dumbest guy he knew, having to follow prep’ classes. It would probably end in an incredible disaster. His model student reputation was going to suffer so much from the situation. But imagining the King struggling with his lessons was something almost worth it.

Kageyama groaned and said that he wanted to skip class, and that it was justified by the situation. Sawamura patted his back and told him that there was no skipping class.

Kei told the setter to at least try to stay awake and made sure that Yamaguchi would keep an eye on him. The pinch server grinned and promised to give him his notes afterwards.

The team parted to go their own classes. Yamaguchi had to drag Kageyama to their class, making Kei snicker. He entered the room and went to sit down where the setter told him to. Today was going to be like an early vacation, as the level required was lower and he probably had already done the day’s lessons.

He rested his head on his hand and let out a yawn, not bothering to hide it, as Kageyama would probably do. This guy didn’t have any manner, anyway. The teacher came in and started her lecture, but Kei’s mind was far from the classroom.

The whole situation they were in was incredibly stupid. And weird. Switching bodies was just unreal; it only happened in bad sci-fi movies or comedies. And yet it had happened to them. He still wondered why it had to be the King. Switching bodies with Yamaguchi would have been fine:  they knew each other’s parents, knew each other’s habits and such. Explaining the situation to his parents wouldn’t have been so hard and potentially so embarrassing. With Kageyama in his body, there were so many things he had to tell and so many things his family – if they learned about it – could tell the setter. He didn’t really want anybody to know how he was a few years ago. Especially not someone as simple-minded as Kageyama, who would tell everyone if asked.

He hoped that everything would be back to normal soon. The idea of being in someone else’s body was weird and he didn’t like it. Knowing someone else was in his own body was infuriating. Even if he didn’t think of Kageyama as the kind of people who would do weird things to his body, the King was still an idiot and would manage to do something stupid nonetheless.

He would have to deal with Kageyama’s family, too. He was up too early to see anyone. Maybe he could play things off and say he wasn’t feeling well so he could avoid any interaction. The setter was going to have trouble dealing with his family even if he tried that trick, Kei thought. His brother would worry as soon as he heard that and his mother would cook for him and force him to eat before he goes to bed. Kei snorted at that thought. Spending a moment without his family would feel like early holidays, too.

“Kageyama? Since you’re doing us the honour to be awake, can you answer that?” the teacher called, showing the black board with her thumb.

Kei gave a quick glance at the white writing and answered, mentally taking note that it would probably be the first time in ages that “Kageyama” had a right answer. The teacher let her chalk stick fall on the floor, eyes wide opened. She regained her composure quickly enough but stuttered as she wrote down the answer, congratulating him. The other students looked at him, surprise all over their faces. Kei smirked and went back to his thoughts.

Lunch time came finally but Kei didn’t move from his seat. He knew Hinata would come and loudly call “Kageyama”, probably to join Yamaguchi for lunch. And he wasn’t wrong, the shrimp did come and grabbed him by the arm to go to his usual classroom.

Yamaguchi was sitting next to Kageyama, who was frowning and looked pretty confused. The pinch server laughed and smiled when he saw Kei and Hinata arriving. The four of them sat together and Kei asked Yamaguchi for a share of his lunch.

“You didn’t find it?” Kageyama asked, frowning even more. “The lunch box was in the fridge.”

“Well, I’m sorry you live so far from the school that I didn’t have time to really look for anything.”

Kageyama huffed but gave him the lunch box Kei knew his mother had made. He looked at the setter with a raised eyebrow.

“Aren’t you gonna eat? I’m not letting you starve my body, King.”

“It’s your lunch, not mine. And you were ready to steal food from Yamaguchi, I can’t do the same?”

Kei rolled his eyes and put the box between them. He noticed the surprised look Kageyama gave him but the other looked down quickly after, starting to eat. Kei heard Yamaguchi snorted but ignored him.

They finished eating, mostly in silence, to everyone’s surprise. Hinata glared at him during the whole time, sometimes replying to Yamaguchi or arguing with Kageyama. Kei wondered for a moment why the shrimp seemed to be so upset with him – and only him. Was it like a protection stratagem to make sure Kei didn’t do anything bad to his best friend’s body? If so, Hinata had a pretty low opinion of him. Well, he _did_. But then it was even lower than Kei had thought.

He followed Hinata out of the room and get back to his “own”. The afternoon was going to be as boring as the morning.

He let his thoughts wander back to Kageyama’s family. He wondered how he was supposed to act in their presence, if he would have to talk a lot or not and other things. He wondered what his parents were like, if they were as awkward as their son, if Kageyama had taken more from his father or his mother. That was something that could actually be fun to discover. He couldn’t think of a time when the King had talked about his parents.

The teacher asked him a question again and his answer was once again right, earning him a worried look from the woman, used to Kageyama’s lack of attention and poor scholar level. But she said nothing and after a last glance, she went back to her lecture.

A few hours later, he was heading back to the volleyball club locker room. Sawamura was already in here, putting on his shorts, and Kinoshita and Narita followed right after him.

“How did the day go?” the captain asked, a small sympathetic smile on his face, as he probably knew the answer.

“Boring.”

“I’m pretty sure you could have slept in class, if you wanted” Kinoshita remarked. “I mean, Kageyama, Hinata, Noya and Tanaka are known all around the school to be the “Sleeper gang”. The teacher probably wouldn’t have bothered you too much!”

“I think pretty much everyone in the team would have done it.” Narita smiled. “Well, maybe not you or Yamaguchi actually. And Daichi and Suga, probably.”

“Suga? Never, as tired as he could be, he’d stay awake the whole day!” Sawamura laughed.

Just as he finished his sentence though, Sugawara arrived and replied.

“At least I’m paying attention, not like _certain persons I know_. You used to spend a lot of time snoring in class, if I remember well!”

“I haven’t done it in a year! And you can’t blame me for finding algebra boring, you’re one of the only persons I know who actually like that!”

Kei stopped listening to them after that, as it became a debate about whether algebra was interesting or not.

He changed clothes and waited for Yamaguchi to arrive. His best friend entered the locker room around five minutes after, talking to Kageyama who was nodding after each sentence.

“Ah, Tsukki! I hope you don’t mind? I told him about your family and how you call them; also what to avoid to do when he’s at home if Akiteru is here!”

Kei couldn’t mind even if he wanted, since it was actually pretty helpful and he wouldn’t have to do it himself, that way. Less embarrassing. And Yamaguchi knew him well enough to be able to give information like that.

Kei kept an eye on Kageyama, as the other was trying to change as quickly as possible. He nearly tripped over the pants and Kei’s glasses almost died. To say that the King was clumsy was a euphemism that day. Kei silently prayed for the sake of his glasses.

Hinata entered the room loudly and was about to jump on Kageyama when he remembered the whole switching bodies thing and stopped abruptly. He glared at Kei one more time and walked to Kageyama who called him a “dumbass”, as usual.

“When will you switch back? This is so annoyiiiing! I want to have my setter back, none of the tosses feel the same!”

The King grabbed the shrimp’s head, muttering that if he wasn’t satisfied with the toss, it was his problem. Kei rolled his eyes. Those two would never change. But watching his body acting “on his own” was weird. It felt like he was watching a movie and couldn’t say or do anything.

“Tsukki! Are you coming?”

He followed Yamaguchi out of the room, leaving the two weirdos alone. Before the door closed, he thought he heard Hinata yell at Kageyama, something sounding a lot like “I told you nothing good would come from that!”.

The evening practice ended up pretty much the same as the morning one. Kei didn’t want to put more effort in his jump and his receives were still as bad. The only good thing was the power in his serves. It was almost amazing, how those arms could use so much power to hit the ball while never using his full capacities. Kei had to admit that Kageyama was doing a great job in taking care of his body.

The Coach called the end of practice and everyone started stretching. Yamaguchi as his partner, as usual, Kei discovered that Kageyama’s body was pretty flexible too. He wouldn’t try it, but Kei was almost sure he could do the splits. Hell, this guy could probably have done any other sport with a body like that. He guessed Karasuno _was_ lucky he had chosen volleyball.

As the team headed back after cleaning, Kei thought about that. What could have possibly made Kageyama choose volleyball over another sport? He had been playing since at least middle school. Did he play before that too?

Back in the locker room, Kei listened to Tanaka and Nishinoya trying to extort information about him from Kageyama. The setter was mumbling that he had been too groggy and overwhelmed by Kei’s family to actually have time to understand anything. Kei snorted, knowing way too well how it felt.

Hinata tried to make a deal with Kageyama and have him practice a little more, as they always do. But Yamaguchi stopped him with an apologetic smile.

“It would be weird if ‘Tsukki’ suddenly stayed back at the gym. His parents would worry and his brother would bug Kageyama the whole night.”

“Oh… Pfft! I hate this situation, you’d better be back to normal soon!” Hinata pouted.

“As if we didn’t hate it ourselves, dumbass.”

It wasn’t as if they had chosen to switch bodies.

“I guess I’ll walk Kageyama back, right?” Yamaguchi asked. “I can help you with the homework by the way.” He added, smiling at Kageyama who answered with a nod.

Kei got the impression that something between his best friend and the King has changed. They had looked pretty close since this morning. Kei had put that on the fact that he himself and Yamaguchi were close from the start and seeing “Tsukishima” and Yamaguchi not as close as usual would have made people notice something was really wrong. But as the two exited the locker room, Kei wasn’t sure that it was only an act.

After the two first years left, Kei was left with Hinata. Hinata who was once again glaring at him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kei huffed, pretty annoyed since he hadn’t done anything to the shrimp that day that deserved such glares.

“I don’t trust you.”

“Did you ever? I’m surprised if you did, I thought you only had resent for me.”

“There’s ‘trust’ and ‘trust’. I don’t _trust_ you. Not for the time being.”

“Why is that?” Kei sighed. He didn’t feel like guessing.

“Kageyama’s my best friend. I don’t trust you. Don’t hurt him or your height won’t save you.”

Kei shivered. Hinata’s eyes were intense and scary; this was the look he had on the court when an opponent was strong and he was getting _really_ serious. At that moment, Kei felt small. Not that he let the feeling slip outside. But Hinata was serious and not taking the threat seriously would only lead to bad things.

He didn’t answer; the shrimp’s rant didn’t ask for an answer. The small blocker kept glaring at him a moment before he picked up his stuff and left. Kei felt his shoulders relax and wondered when he had gotten so tensed up. He gathered his own things and left as well.

The trip back to Kageyama’s house was too silent for him. He made a mental note to ask for his headphones the next morning. Walking a whole hour and a half was tiring too. Kageyama’s body didn’t particularly feel Kei’s mental tiredness, though. He was sort of thankful for that. He wondered if the other did the trip so quietly usually. If he just walked slowly – or well, as slowly as Kageyama Tobio could walk – and get back home in complete silence. That seemed rather sad, to Kei. But Kageyama was a weirdo and probably enjoyed the quietness. After dealing with a hyperactive ball of living orange cotton candy, anybody would need silence. Kei may as well enjoy it, if Kageyama’s parents were the same kind as his.

His own family talked too much and there was almost never a time when there was silence. Silence was something Kei was not used to, in the end and no matter what. Always sounds in the background, either coming from animated discussions, the crappy TV shows airing or just his own music. Kei’s life was full of sounds and noises. He kind of hoped Kageyama’s parents wouldn’t be as loud as his family.

He finally reached the house and let out a sigh of content. All he wanted right now was lying in bed for the rest of the evening – and maybe get the homework Kageyama’s teacher gave her class done before sleeping because he wouldn’t have time to do it in the morning.

He opened the door and called, as he always did at home and how pretty much everyone else did in Japan.

“I’m home!”

He took off his shoes and frowned. Maybe Kageyama’s parents were working late? He carefully wandered around the house and saw nobody. Well, he asked for silence, he got silence; that was the least he could say.

Seeing no point in staying in the living room, he went to the kitchen to grab some snack or something. Looking in the many shelves and drawers, he noticed that there was barely anything left. The King’s family would have to do some groceries soon enough. He took a handful of biscuits and went to Kageyama’s room.

The room was, obviously, as empty as it had been that morning. But Kei noticed some volleyball magazines and many volleyball-related stuff here and there. He rolled his eyes. A true volleyball freak, indeed. It looked like it was the only thing the King cared for. Kei also noticed that, even if it was pretty empty, the room was really clean. There were no clothed scattered on the floor, no books laying open on the small desk, or anything. If it weren’t for the volleyball stuff and the bed he left undone in the morning, the room would have looked as if no one was actually living there.

He sat at the desk – grumbling about how small it was and _how the hell can he do his homework like that_ – and took out the books and exercises he needed to do. They turned out pretty easy, at least for him. He snickered, imagining Kageyama having a hard time with whatever exercises his own teacher gave the class. Yamaguchi was probably trying to help him as much as he could and make him understand the bases. Kei wasn’t sure if anything not related to volleyball could reach his brain, though. The King was simple-minded.

Kei closed the books and checked which ones he would need the day after, preparing his bag for the next morning.

He looked around the room from the small chair he was sitting on and let his eyes wander on a cupboard. There was an impact on it, as if someone – probably Kageyama – had punched it. It didn’t look like he opened it often. Kei was tempted to go look into it. But that wouldn’t be right, he told himself. But there was no saying Kageyama wasn’t looking in every corner of his room right now to find things Kei wanted to hide. Not that he had anything embarrassing to hide, though. Especially not his retro video game collection well hidden from his brother. Or the children books he kept from his childhood because they were his favourite.

“If he finds them, he’d better keep his mouth shut.” He muttered.

His eyes stayed on the cupboard. One look wouldn’t kill, right? At worse, he would discover some weird passion Kageyama could have. Kei stood up and approached the furniture. It wasn’t as if he would use whatever information he could learn against Kageyama. He wasn’t such a monster.

He grabbed the door handle and opened it.

At first, he thought it was empty. But when he looked down, he saw a small box. It was torn and old but its contents seemed well-preserved. He bit his lip. If he wanted to stop, he had to turn away now. But the papers in the box had colours that attracted his eyes. Kei didn’t resist any longer to his curiosity.

He crouched down and picked up the box. He put it on Kageyama’s bed and sat down next to it. It seemed that it only contained papers, so Kei took everything and put them on his lap.

Those were drawings. Only drawings, apparently. And pretty good ones, at that. The first one, on top of the pile, was easy to recognize. It was the Karasuno team. Sawamura, Sugawara and Azumane in the middle of the picture, surrounded by the second years and finally, the first years. It was incredible, how precise the faces were, how easy it was to recognize everyone and their facial expressions. It was amazing how the colours were harmonized and suited everyone so much. There were some flaws in the picture, but without them, this could have been easily mistaken for a photograph. Kei was speechless as he stared at it. He wondered if Kageyama was the one who drew this. It was more likely so, as Kei noticed the small signature in the volleyball Kageyama’s 2D counterpart was holding. The smile of this Kageyama was bright and nowhere near anything the setter had tried during their matches. But somehow, this suited him very well. This looked natural.

Kei put that drawing aside carefully and took a look at the next one. It was almost as good as the first one but the scene it represented gave off a feeling less joyful. The colours were darker and there were only two persons. The one on the left was clearly Kageyama – or should he say, “the King”, as the crown and the cape were present, even if only traced –, and his arms were open and turned towards the wall of the gymnasium – still Karasuno’s. A volleyball was laying against said wall, half-transparent. The person on the right, Kei could have hesitated at guessing who it was if it weren’t for the colours. Orange and black, Karasuno’s colours. An orange bush of hair, typically Hinata’s. But there was something more. Big, dark shining wings, wide spread, were coming from his back. Hinata’s side was more luminous and colourful while Kageyama’s side was pretty dark and shaded of greys.

For some reason – a weird feeling had gotten him – Kei then took the drawing at the bottom, without moving the other one.

This drawing was way less impressive. Stick figures and badly coloured shapes. But he could still guess who were the tree persons on it. One had long black hair and was wearing what appeared to be a dress. Probably his mother, Kei thought. The second one, a man, his father it seemed, had short spiky dark hair. He was holding a volleyball and smiling. Kageyama, drawn between his parents, was smiling just as brightly. Kei turned the sheet of paper and saw a neatly written “Age 3”. So it was Kageyama’s childhood drawings. Kei guessed from the picture that Kageyama’s father had been playing volleyball at that time and could be the reason the setter was so fond of the sport.

The next drawing was essentially the same, except that now, Kageyama was holding a ball as well. Drawings like those went on for a little while, sometimes changing the setting behind the characters and their positions but there was always a volleyball in the hands of Kageyama.

Then Kei saw a drawing slightly different from the others. The building behind little Kageyama had a banner reading in messily written hiragana “Kita Ichi”. The lines were getting better, more confident and starting to get the shapes of what they represented.

“The King’s diary, heh?” Kei smirked. It was an original way of keeping tracks of what happened in his life, he thought. Maybe he should stop here, a little voice in the back of his mind told him – and the voice sounded a bit like Hinata. But now it was too late and it had arouse his curiosity. This could be a good way of finding out what exactly had happened in the King’s mind when he was playing in middle school. _This is not okay_ , the voice repeated. But he shut it off.

He took the next drawing. This time it was a gymnasium – or at least so he guessed – and there were many volleyballs on the ground. And still one in Kageyama’s hands. There were also some other characters – probably the other Kitagawa players. Kei found that the one with triangle dark hair resembled that spiker from Kageyama’s middle school matches and Aoba Jousai’s.

A few drawings after, there were two characters whose features became more apparent: one with spiky dark brown hair and the other with a very familiar haircut and light brown hair. Oikawa Tooru and his ace. Little Kageyama was looking at Oikawa, ball still in hands. The older setter had a ball in his own hands. The frown on the ace’s face was visible and so was the pink tongue of the setter. But little Kageyama was still wearing a big smile.

The next drawing, Kei had to admit, was quite a shock. First from how much better it was compared to the last one, then from the scene it described. Little Kageyama had his ball in hands – when didn’t he have one – but he wasn’t smiling. His eyes were wide and looking at the older setter. Oikawa’s face wasn’t drawn and the only way to recognize him was his hair. He had his hand up in the air but the ace – Kei recognized the hair – was holding his wrist. There was a ball between the two third years, half-erased. Kageyama’s face didn’t reflect any fear, just incomprehension.

Kei looked at the drawing a moment, trying to understand what exactly could have happened that day. He frowned but gave up understanding – he shouldn’t have seen that in the first place, so going into deep analysis was probably not a good idea.

He put the paper aside and looked at the next one. For a few more drawings, the scenes were pretty much the same. Kitagawa Daiichi’s team playing, Oikawa serving, his ace spiking, Kageyama looking at them with bright eyes. The lines of the drawings were improving each time and, as he reached the graduation day of Kitagawa Daiichi’s third years, Kei could honestly say that the drawings looked professional. If it weren’t for the colouring which was still clumsy, he wouldn’t have guessed it was from a middle schooler.

A few more sheets where Kageyama was playing with the new second years and Kei stopped again on a drawing. He frowned.

The picture showed Kageyama and his ball under his arm. And beside him stood the turnip-hair spiker, a ball under his arm as well. Both of them were smiling. Both of them were holding hands. Kei felt that he had just learned something that he really shouldn’t have, that Kageyama would have preferred to keep secret, and felt bad.

He thought about stopping looking at the drawings for a moment but his curiosity won over his reason again. If that drawing marked something, it was obviously the fact that the two of them had started dating; otherwise Kageyama wouldn’t have taken the time to draw that and would have stuck with practice shots. But if the two of them were dating at that time, why did they look so hostile towards each other in every match Karasuno and Aoba Jousai had played? Something must have happened and this was probably tightly related to the nickname of the King. But what could be so bad between them that they would break up, treat each other as trash and would lead to Kageyama’s team to give him up? Trying to understand from Kageyama’s point of view wasn’t the best was to find out but it was all Kei had. And he wanted to understand.

The next drawings were as colourful as this one, and often features Kageyama and the spiker together. Everything looked perfect, like nothing in the world could make Kageyama feel down.

After a picture showing Kageyama’s seniors graduating, Kei noticed that the colours in the next drawings were getting darker. At first, it was barely visible. But as he put aside each new picture, everything was turning dark. No more white, no more yellow or orange; everything was dark blue, dark grey or black. No more warmth and so many uncertain lines. The faces weren’t drawn anymore, there was only the shapes. Some drawings were crossed-out, some were torn. And more and more, Kageyama and the spiker were staying far from each other.

One picture had Kageyama on the left side, volleyball in hands, but he was almost blurred into the background. The spiker was on the other side and facing away from Kageyama. He was throwing a ball over his shoulder and a smile was drawn on his face. Human shapes around him, probably the team.

The next one was almost the same: Kageyama on the left, almost disappearing in the background. But the spiker wasn’t here anymore and neither was the team. But what shocked the most Kei wasn’t the potential implication that the two had broken up. No, what was striking here were Kageyama’s hands. They were coloured brightly, standing out in this dark image. They were standing out and they were empty. They were the first thing one would see when looking at the drawing; and they were empty. Those hands, which for the last hundreds of drawings had _always_ been holding a volleyball, were empty.

That was probably the day Kageyama’s teammates had decided to stop trying.

The next drawing was the same, except for two elements. A crown and a cape. Bright, warm colours in the middle of those dark, cold colours. No volleyball in this picture either. Just a large red cape and a big golden crown.

More drawings came, with the same scene. But getting darker every time, while his hands, the crown and the cape were getting brighter. At some point, there were only a dark background and floating hands and royal elements.

“The King’s era.” Kei guessed out loud.

The following drawing, Kei could also guess what it was. Kitagawa Daiichi’s first match in the middle school tournament. The orange hair and the white wings of the small character facing Kageyama left no doubt about his identity. His wings were tainted with dirt, Kei noticed. And he remembered hearing that Kageyama had thought that Hinata had wasted his three years of middle school. But his side was luminous. Kitagawa Daiichi’s side was dark and none of their players had facial features. Hinata’s team were detailed, and Kei was amazed to see how precise their faces were. Kageyama had only seen them for about thirty minutes and yet he had remembered them enough to draw them.

The last drawing he hadn’t looked at was ripped. But the parts were big enough for him to put them together and see what was on them. Kageyama was on the left, smaller – farther? – than the people on the right. His hands were in position for a toss and he had his face turned towards the others. His eyes were wide and reflected pure shock. A volleyball was on the floor, half-transparent again. The people on the right – his teammates – were drawn too much in the front of the drawing: their heads were cut, but you could see pretty well their jersey numbers.

Kei put the drawing with the others. He stares at the floor a moment. He had probably learned more about Kageyama with those drawings than he could ever have if he tried to talk with him.

But he wasn’t supposed to know all of that. Kageyama didn’t allow him to look at that, didn’t know he had looked at the drawings. There was probably nobody who knew about Kageyama’s drawings. And there would be an excellent reason for that. It was Kageyama’s privacy. Nobody had to know.

Kei felt bad. And the more he thought about it, the more it appeared to him that what he had just done was disgusting.

He put all the papers back in the box and put the box at the same place he had taken it from. He carefully closed the cupboard. He shot a glance at the clock. It was almost nine in the evening. He sighed. He would have to go to bed in at least an hour if he wanted to get six hours of sleep.

He went out of the room to get into the kitchen. And he realized something. The house was as empty as Kageyama’s room.

“Where are his parents?” Kei wondered out loud.

By that time and if he were at home, he would be eating or would already have eaten. His mom made dinner around eight. But where were Kageyama’s parents? And where was the food? (Kageyama’s stomach agreed with the last question).

He waited another half an hour and ended up going back to the bedroom to grab Kageyama’s phone. He quickly dialled his own number.

“What?” the grumpy answer came after three rings.

“Do your parents actually come home or do I have to feed myself with something left in the fridge?”

“Ah… No, they won’t come home. Is there even something left in the fridge? I needed to go out do the groceries.”

“I’m pretty sure you could have done them before, King.”

“I told you to stop calling me that, asshole. And I only do them when there isn’t anything left.” Kageyama answered.

Obviously he had to do things that way.

“If you find a way to have me out after practice, I can go with you to do them.”

“Oh? The King willing to accompany a peasant like me? Such an honour!”

He could almost hear Kageyama fuming over the phone.

“But that will be appreciated, anyway. I don’t even know where you keep your money, to begin with.”

“And I’m not gonna tell you. So find something I could tell your parents to be out late.”

Kei thought about that a moment. He never really went out late, so the excuse had to be made of steel or neither his parents nor his brother would believe it. But what in the world could force him to be out after six in the evening? Volleyball practice was out of the question, his brother would never believe he had started training more than necessary. What did he usually tell them when he went at Yamaguchi’s?.. That he was going at Yamaguchi’s, yeah. It’s been a while since the last time he actually had to explain why he was going at someone’s house.

“So? Did you fall asleep or what?”

“I didn’t. Just… Yeah, just tell them in the morning that you’re sleeping over at a friend’s. And take clean clothes. And my headphones.”

“Aren’t they gonna ask what friend?”

“Tell them it’s none of their business. They won’t ask again. Well, Akiteru’s probably gonna bug you some more but just ignore him.”

Kei heard him snort but didn’t say anything.

“I’ll do that. That was all you needed?”

“Yeah, I’ll go find something to eat and go sleep.”

“I think I left pastas in the cupboard next to the fridge, if you feel like eating that.”

“Okay.”

Kei hung up without adding anything, knowing that Kageyama wouldn’t say more either. He sighed and went back to the kitchen.

As the setter had said, there was a packet of pastas in the cupboard. Kei grabbed it and took a saucepan. It couldn’t be that hard to cook pastas, right? If even Akiteru had managed to survive with that at his college’s dorm, Kei totally could do the same.

Except he couldn’t at all.

Ten minutes after, he was still glaring at the burnt pastas in his plate. Okay, so college life wouldn’t be that easy, now he knew it. This was also something he would keep secret even on his death bed.

He tried to eat at least some of them, but Kageyama’s stomach wasn’t fooled and quickly made himself heard as to protest. Clicking his tongue, Kei threw the left-overs in the bin. Well, hopefully Kageyama would give him the lunch box his mother made again. And Yamaguchi would have planned this possibility and took more food too.

Sighing, he went to the bathroom to change into pyjamas and brush his teeth. When he was finished, he finally went to bed and set the alarm clock. The silence of the room – of the house – made it easier to fall asleep, even though it was slightly disturbing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After 4 months, I'm back! Unbelievable.  
> This part is a bit shorter (something like 5,6k words I think?) and maybe not all that good for the time you've had to wait but, ah well. I hope you'll still enjoy it anyway!  
> I can't tell you _at all_ when the next part will be up, I have literally no idea how much time it's gonna take me. Sorry ;w;
> 
> I only proofread once, so there has to be a lot of mistakes left, also probably a lot of inconstancy because I get confused and forget what I wrote ;v;   
> Please let me know if you notice anything too horrible!!

When the alarm rang, his hand found it faster than he could have wished for. He groaned and pulled the sheets off him, sliding a leg out of the bed. The morning ritual went pretty well and he was quick to prepare himself. He managed to find something to eat and even if it was a very light breakfast, it was still better than an empty stomach.

The walk to school was once again too silent for him, even when Hinata joined him. All the short guy did was glaring at him. Kei quickly remembered what he had said the day before. He wondered if Hinata knew about Kageyama’s drawings. Probably not, as it wasn’t something you would just decide to show one day like “hey I got that shit ton of drawings that represent almost every day of my life since I was three, do you want to take a look?”. But then again, the shrimp _did_ know more about Kageyama than Kei did, so it was still a possibility. Maybe that was what Hinata was talking about when he said he didn’t trust him. Whoops.

They arrived at the school gym a short time after the third years. They greeted them and went to the locker room.

Yamaguchi and Kageyama entered the room five minutes later. Yamaguchi was chuckling and Kei swore he saw Kageyama almost throw a small smile at that.

The setter then looked at him and came closer, taking one of the two bags off his shoulders to search in it. He pulled off Kei’s headphones and carefully gave them to their original owner.

Kei put them in his bag and thanked him. Kageyama opened his mouth to reply but Hinata grabbed his arm and dragged him in the other corner of the room to change and tell him about his evening. Yamaguchi approached him with a sheepish smile.

“He was scared of breaking them.” He explained. “And I think your brother is a little mad, he was whining behind him when Kageyama went out.”

“’Must be because he ignored him. That’s what I told him to do. Akiteru can live one day without getting attention I think.”

Yamaguchi grinned and took off his shirt, starting to change.

“He told me you found a way to have him out after practice, what are you two going to do?”

“Groceries. There’s nothing left in his fridge.” Kei muttered, thinking back of the burnt pastas.

“You’re both spending the night at his home? It’s like a sleepover! Though I’m not sure either of you actually know how to have fun!” Yamaguchi snickered.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” Kei rolled his eyes and resist the urge to smile.

He would never mind Yamaguchi sassing him in a way or another. The boy needed to learn how to snap back at people who were talking shit about him, so Kei was fine with those small remarks.

After everyone was changed, they went back to the gymnasium and practice started. Like the day before, Kei didn’t really put any effort in it, though was still pretty amazed by Kageyama’s body power. Be it his jumps, his serves or the few spikes he did, there was always a raw strength in them. Kei did remember seeing a weight in the setter’s room but he hadn’t thought much about it at that moment.

Practice went on quite peacefully. Hinata complained once or twice that Kageyama’s tosses didn’t feel the same but beside that, there were no problems.

The day’s classes were as boring as yesterday’s to Kei. He purposely got some answers wrong – it would be cruel to give hope to that poor woman – and wrote down a few notes.

Lunch came around and Hinata came for him like the day before. They joined Yamaguchi and Kageyama again and Kei managed to get a fair share of both of the boys’ lunch.

“You’ll have to tell me what you want, tonight.” Kageyama said after a moment, looking up at Kei.

“Depends on how much you have.”

“Enough for healthy food.”

Kei nodded and took another bite of his lunch. So the King would let him choose what he wanted to eat? Neat. Maybe he could trick him into buying shortcakes without the King discovering his sweet tooth.

They finished eating and talked a little more until the bell rang. Hinata walked him back to his class and left him, not without a last glare.

During the afternoon, Kei thought about what to buy that evening. He made a mental shopping list and tried to concentrate on the lesson. Hopefully, they wouldn’t take too long to do the groceries and he would get some rest, finally. The next day was a Saturday and they luckily didn’t have practice in the morning – something to do with some business obligations, if he remembered what the coach had told them. Maybe Kageyama wouldn’t bother him too much and everything would be so nice for once. Kei held that hope.

After another laborious practice, some more glares from the shrimp and a quick passage at Kageyama’s house, Kei and Kageyama found themselves in the nearest shop. Kei hadn’t seen how much money the setter had taken but he trusted him when he said he had “enough”. They wandered through some sections, just looking and not talking.

“So… What do you want?” Kageyama finally asked, looking unsure of what to say or do.

“I’m not a picky eater so whatever you usually take is fine. Don’t your parents have a food schedule or something?”

“… Yours do?”

“Yeah. Fridays are fish days. So?”

“I don’t think they ever set up something like that. Actually I’m not even sure I’ve seen them eat last time they were home.”

Kei raised an eyebrow.

“So they’re not at home all the time?”

“Why would they be?” Kageyama tilted his head, a curious look on his face.

Kei frowned. Something felt off. Exactly how often were his parents home? Them being away seemed way too usual for the setter.

“Anyway, isn’t there anything you want?”

“I told you, just pick what you usually take.”

“Why don’t you just choose?”

Kageyama was getting more irritated as Kei answered him each time. Kei rolled his eyes and gave up on having him choosing. That idiot would throw a tantrum in the middle of the shop if they kept on like that.

They started to wander through the many sections, this time with a real purpose. Kei picked what he knew was at his own home and that his mother usually cooked him. They were at it for ten minutes before he stopped walking and narrowed his eyes at Kageyama.

“Wait. If your parents aren’t home. Then who cooks?”

“…? I do?”

The setter was looking at him as if he had said one of the most obvious thing in the world.

“You cook.”

“You don’t?”

… Given the pastas from the day before, Kei could admit – only mentally though – that he, indeed, didn’t know how to cook. But that was not something the setter needed to know. Nobody had to know, in fact.

He avoided the question and picked cereals without a word. A few moments after that, they went to the checkout. Kei almost felt guilty when he saw the total price for everything but Kageyama didn’t seem to mind or find it strangely expensive. The only things Kageyama had refused to buy him were the strawberry shortcakes he had tried to grab. The setter had said “no” without a possibility to argue. But he did pick strawberries on his own soon after. Kei didn’t really understand the King’s logic.

They carried their bags to Kageyama’s house in silence. When they reached it, they put the bags on the kitchen table and sat down.

“I told your parents I was coming back on Monday evening, by the way. They didn’t seem to mind much but your mother had me taking another pair of underwear.”

“I guess Akiteru was more upset about that.”

“Yeah, and it got worse when I ignored him. How the hell do you do that all the time?”

Kei snorted. Kageyama got up and put their groceries in the cupboards and the fridge. Kei let him do it and observed, trying to remember where he put what.

“What do you want to eat?”

Knowing better than arguing – they wouldn’t eat if they started now – Kei simply answered pastas. He was curious to see if the King could actually cook. He supposed so, either way he wouldn’t survive school and practice but, yeah. The idea of him knowing how to do anything else besides volleyball was still pretty funny in Kei’s mind.

“You can… I don’t know, go watch TV or something, I guess?”

Nodding, Kei went to the living room and settled on the couch. It wasn’t as if they would have anything to talk about while Kageyama cooked, anyway. He turned the TV on and went through all the channels, trying to find something at least a little bit interesting. He found a movie channel and went for that.

He had to admit that he had totally forgotten about dinner and everything because he was too engrossed in the movie when Kageyama came find him after a while.

When Kei saw the plates, he wondered how exactly this could look so different from his poor attempt of the day before. The pastas smelled amazing, looked perfect and even the sauce Kageyama had added looked out of five-star restaurant. And the taste, after he took a bite when they started eating. The taste. Just amazingly delicious. His mother had never done something that tasty, he thought.

“How is it?” Kageyama asked with a frown. He genuinely looked worried that it didn’t taste good.

“’s’good.” Kei answered while taking bites after bites.

He heard him sigh and Kageyama admitted not being used to cook for more than himself.

“So… What are we gonna do?”

“About what?” Kei asked. “About the body exchange? We can’t really do anything. We don’t know what made it occur. About after this weekend if we aren’t back in our own bodies? We’ll have to keep playing each other roles. Which I have to say, I have it easy. When will your parents be back?”

“Um… I think Mom said she was coming back at the end of the month…” Kei raised an eyebrow. “And Dad is in America for now, I think. So I guess he won’t be back before a while.”

“… Is it often like that?”

“Yeah. It’s been like that since I was, maybe, six? I think. But that’s not a problem. When they come home, they look happy, so it’s okay, I guess.”

Kei hoped they were at least happy, with how much they left their only child alone. But it didn’t seem to bother Kageyama at all. _He’s used to this situation, so I guess it doesn’t_ , Kei thought.

Now that he thought about it, that would explain the lack of family drawings passed a certain age in Kageyama’s diary. And the emptiness of everything in the house.

They finished eating in relative silence. After putting the dishes away and cleaning them, Kageyama asked Kei what he wanted to do that evening. He answered that watching movies would be good and that he was going back to the living room. The setter nodded but didn’t follow him; not that Kei really mind having some time alone, even if the setter wasn’t that bad of a company if he didn’t tease him.

Kei found himself once again engrossed in a movie. That sci-fi channel sure knew how to choose the movies they were showing. And the fact that it involved dinosaurs obviously wasn’t the main reason he found it interesting, not at all. Kei barely registered the smell coming from the kitchen where Kageyama was still working.

When Kageyama came back and sat down on the couch with him, Kei started and looked away from the screen, where the sequel of the previous movie was already at half its total time.

“What’s it about?”

“An interdimensional portal opened somewhere in the city and dinosaurs are coming back and attacking people. And that guy,” Kei pointed at the screen when the protagonist appeared, “that guy is trying to shoo them back in their dimension.”

“Oh. That sounds… interesting?”

“You never watch movies, do you?” Kei smirked.

“Not really. I guess I’ve seen a few at school or something. Oh, and once at Kitagawa Daiichi, we had a movie night for Iwaizumi’s birthday thanks to Oikawa. I think it was… uh. Dogzilla?”

“Godzilla. They made you watch that in your first year?”

“Well, Oikawa kept on saying it was Iwaizumi’s favourite and the adults just couldn’t resist his whining, so… I think half of the first years didn’t sleep, though.” Kageyama snickered.

“And you did?”

“I fell asleep halfway through the movie.”

Kei snorted and told him it wasn’t even surprising. Kageyama pouted but didn’t deny.

They watched the end of the movie together but when the third film of the trilogy started – “They’re pretty bad at fixing interdimensional portals” Kageyama had commented – the setter stood up and went to his room. Kei guessed he was going to draw, probably.

The silence of the room, minus the background sounds from the movie, started to get on Kei’s mood. Quiet was good from time to time but when you were used to having people on your back all the time, it did get lonely at some point. He wondered if Kageyama felt lonely – if he actually realized he was feeling lonely and it wasn’t something he should just “get used to”. For all Kei now knew about him, it seemed a lot like the poor guy hardly had any help to learn how to live, beside the bases like cooking and taking care of himself. He knew that some people didn’t want social interactions and managed to live with a very few of them – but Kageyama looked more like the kind of person that wished to have social interactions, but just didn’t know how to have one.

Getting up, Kei turned off the television and headed to the setter’s room. He probably wasn’t the best social interaction the other could have, but at least he could be one. That was better than nothing, right?

The door of Kageyama’s room was slightly open and Kei took that as a permission to enter. He didn’t say a word, though, when he saw the look of concentration on Kageyama’s face. Or, well, _his_ face. The other hadn’t noticed him yet and Kei decided to observe him. As he had thought, the setter had gone drawing. On his desk were scattered sheets of paper, some still white and others covered with sketches.

Kageyama was working on one of the sketches, retracing the lines to get them better. Soon, the outline was clear and he took a yellow pencil without looking up from his paper. The care with which he began to colour the upper part of his drawing amazed Kei.

He kept silent for the biggest part of the drawing. Kageyama either didn’t notice him or didn’t care. Kei watched him as he picked a very pale colour and how he coloured what appeared to be a face. _Portrait_ , Kei guessed. He wondered how it felt to have one’s portrait made. That had to boost the ego, at least a little and if the artist was skilled. A feeling of self-satisfaction, maybe? That was related to ego, though. Flattered, probably. The artist deemed interesting the idea of doing the portrait, after all.

Kageyama put away the pale pencil and took a different shade of yellow this time. A darker one, maybe warmer.  When he started colouring the right eye, things clicked together in Kei’s mind.

“Are you drawing me?”

Kageyama’s start confirmed that he indeed hadn’t paid attention when Kei had entered earlier. He looked shocked a short instant but diverted his eyes to look at anything but Kei and a faint blush covered his cheeks. He put down the pencil, looked at his drawing then back at Kei. He sighed but still replied.

“Y-Yeah. A problem with that?”

“Yeah. Just. Why?”

“Why not?” Kageyama snapped back, defensively. “I mean, I’m not doing anything wrong and it’s just your ugly face.”

“If it’s ugly, why are you even drawing it?”

“To try to make it less ugly?” It was obvious that Kageyama was trying to find a way to escape the questions. Kei frowned but decided to change subjects.

“You draw well. Are those sketches of today’s practice?” The setter nodded. “Do you do that every day? Drawing moments of the day’s practices?”

Well, Kei pretty much knew the answer to that, but he wasn’t going to tell that he had searched through Kageyama’s stuff.

Kageyama narrowed his eyes and watched him suspiciously.

“Why are you interested?”

“You don’t have to be so defensive, King. I’m trying to be nice.”

“I told you not to call me King, asshole. And like you can be nice.”

Kei rolled his eyes and sat down on Kageyama’s bed. There was silence for a moment, in which the setter went back to his drawing.

“I do it every day, yeah.” Kageyama mumbled.

“Like a diary.”

“… Like a diary. I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“That’s an original way of doing it.”

“Hinata said it was kinda weird but nice.”

Oh, so the shrimp did know about the diary thing.

“You let him see your diary?”

“It’s more like he let himself see it? That dumbass went into my things.”

“Was it such a bad thing that he did?”

“… I guess not? Why do you even care?” Kageyama asked and glared at him, putting down his colour pen.

“Just curious.”

The setter stared at him for a moment, then asked: “Do _you_ draw?”

“Uh? No, I don’t. Last time I’ve tried must be something like two years ago.”

A strange glow passed through the golden eyes watching him and Kei became wary. What had the King in mind?

Kageyama stood up and picked up a few pens, sheets of paper and two hard-cover books and joined Kei on his bed. He sat cross-legged next to him and gave him one of the books, a white sheet and a pen. Kei took them but raised an eyebrow at Kageyama.

“I’m not drawing.”

“What? Are you scared your drawings are too shitty? You don’t have to be ashamed, you can’t be good at everything, right?” Kageyama’s smirk at that moment was as good as any of Kei’s usual smirks. Maybe the fact that it was his face and his voice helped, but Kei felt riled up right away.

“Just because I said I don’t draw doesn’t mean I _can’t_ draw, King.”

That evening, Kei unfortunately discovered that he, _indeed_ , couldn’t draw. Kageyama snickered at the doodles but instead of rubbing salt in Kei’s pride wound, he gave him another paper and told him to try to redraw them again. Kei frowned but he did as he was told. He glanced at Kageyama’s own drawing from the corner of his eyes to see that the setter was sketching a classroom. Probably Kei’s class.

The look of concentration on “Kageyama’s” face made Kei slightly smirk. Be it drawing or volleyball, it seemed that the King didn’t do anything half-assed. Kei scribbled on the paper on his laps but didn’t really care about it anymore. His eyes couldn’t leave the movement of Kageyama’s pencil. There was no hesitation, no second-thought about any of the lines he drew. And if he did get some lines wrong, the quick change from pencil to eraser corrected that with a professional hand.

Kei had to admit that, if the drawings already impressed him a lot, seeing Kageyama at work was on another level. It was fascinating to watch him run his pencil on the grain paper with such a dexterity. Kageyama’s pinpoint accuracy on the court was just as present here on paper.

He didn’t notice when the tanned hand slowed down until it stopped. Looking up, he met the golden eyes. His shoulders tensed up and he got defensive.

“What?”

“You’ve been staring.”

“So what?”

Kageyama maintained eye contact a moment without saying anything. Kei pressed his lips together and felt the hair on his nape rise. Those were his own eyes, but having them watch him so intensely made him uncomfortable.

Kageyama shrugged dismissively and went back to his sketch. The tension in Kei’s shoulders relaxed. He took a last glance at Kageyama’s drawing before focusing again on his own doodles. They weren’t exactly good – especially not if compared to Kageyama’s – but well. He was doing his best, no one could blame him, right?

After a moment of trying again to redraw his doodles, Kei gave up and watched Kageyama. The setter had finished drawing most of the classroom and was now adding the shapes for his classmates. Kei could only remember about five students – including Yamaguchi – of his own class and yet Kageyama could draw all of them as if had known them for ages.

“You draw everything from memory?”

“Yeah.”

“And you remember all the little details?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you do that?”

Kageyama put down his pencil and seemed to think for a moment. He looked up at Kei, a frown on his face.

“I don’t really know. I thought most people could do that too. I just observe.”

“And just by observing, you manage to remember exactly what a whole classroom looked like. With all of its students?”

“And the colors and lightning, yeah.”

“Are you hypermnesic?”

“Hyper-what?”

“What is your earliest memory? Like, how old were you in the oldest memory you can think of?”

“I don’t know? How do you want me to remember that?” Kageyama grumbled.

“So it’s really just what you see..?” Kei muttered.

He could try and see if Kageyama really only remembered what he saw. But to do it? He could try to make him describe one of his drawings but how to ask without the other knowing he had search into his closet? Kageyama probably wouldn’t make the connection between his questions and the drawings but well. If he had a sudden spark of intelligence, maybe he could.

“Do you… remember what the building of Kitagawa Daiichi looked like on your first day there?”

“What does it have to do with anything?” Kageyama asked, shoulders tensed and narrowed eyes.

Asking about Kitagawa Daiichi probably wasn’t the best choice he could have made but it was all he could have thought of.

“Do you remember?”

“Well, yeah. What about it?”

“Can you describe it?”

“Yeah. The wall of the gate had a crack on the left side, under the name of the school. The grid was blocked half-way and they were trying to get it to work again. And I saw a boy pushing…”

Okay, so that wasn’t what was drawn on the paper at all. But maybe at that time Kageyama couldn’t draw everything or didn’t deem the details important? In any case, Kei had the proof that Kageyama’s visual memory was excellent if not perfect.

“Wait,” he interrupted the other. “How come you can remember the crack on the wall of your middle school’s gate but you can’t remember anything from your lessons?”

“Hell if I know. I just don’t, everything we learn is bullshit anyway.”

“So you’re really just stupid, huh?”

“What did you say?!”

Kei smirked and avoided Kageyama’s attempt to catch him by standing up. The other didn’t let this faze him and followed him, trying again and again. Inevitably, Kei tripped on his feet and ended up on the floor – and so did Kageyama since he was trying to catch him.

Kei found himself thanking any god that made him not gain weigh easily because as resistant as Kageyama’s body was, his own body still weighted a lot.

“Haha! I caught you.” Kageyama propped himself on his elbows to look at him with a triumphal glow in his eyes.

“Yay. Now what, King? You’re gonna punch yourself in the face, maybe?”

As Kageyama narrowed his eyes, Kei chuckled. It seemed that the other hadn’t considered the whole situation when he started trying to catch him.

The frown disappeared soon though, and he looked at Kei with curiosity.

“Am I not getting too heavy for you?”

“It’s good for now. I’m not that heavy either, anyway.”

“Oh? How much do you weight?”

“68,4.”

“Seriously? How can you be so light with everything your mom cooks? I weight 66,3 and I don’t eat nearly half as much as you’re supposed to do.”

“That’s just how my body is, I guess.”

Kageyama hummed and looked at him for a moment, then he sat back and stretched. Hearing the cracks from his back and arms made Kei cringe and kind of disgusted. Kageyama noticed and apologized. He dragged himself back on the bed and picked up the book and his drawing.

Kei stood up and sat back as well. He leaned on his elbow and watched the setter resume drawing. He didn’t really feel like trying to doodle again, his brain was starting to go into sleep-mode. It _was_ late, after all.

That brought him to a new question.  Who would sleep where?

Last night, he was alone, so Kageyama’s bed had been the logical place to sleep. But now that the owner of said bed was here too, he wasn’t sure where he would be sleeping for the night. Maybe he would end up on the couch? Or would Kageyama be the kind of “polite host” that lend their bed to their guests? He snorted at the thought of Kageyama actually being _polite_ ¸ since he was rather more known for this lack of tact and shame.

The setter looked at him with a frown and Kei guessed he heard his snort.

“It’s nothing, King.”

“I told you to stop calling me that, bastard.” Kageyama’s frown deepened and Kei thought he might have seen him pout. But Kageyama’s face then twist into a calmer expression – as much as the constant frown he wore could look “calm” – and he talked again. “It’s late, isn’t it? Do you… wanna go to bed or something?”

“No, I want to go out and party all night.” He received a blank look. “Obviously I want to go to bed, King. But where do we sleep?”

“…? In… the bed? Where do you wanna sleep If not the bed?”

“Both of us? In your bed?”

“… yes?”

Kageyama looked at him in confusion and Kei understood that he didn’t see where the problem was. Well, it wasn’t a _problem_ per say, it was just very unusual and kind of really awkward – at least for Kei. Kageyama wasn’t ill-intentioned at all, and apparently thought normal two grown-ass teenagers sharing a tiny bed. Kei couldn’t help feeling a little bit stupid for his current embarrassment, but it wasn’t as if he could do anything against that.

“We’re not gonna fit in your bed.”

“You’re not that fat, I’m sure we can.”

“Way to speak to your guest, King.” Well, he had to admit he deserved the glare he got. “Why don’t one of us sleep in your parents’ room?”

“No.” The setter replied immediately. “Also I’m not sleeping on the couch, and you’re not either. You’d just annoy me again for that and then I’d have to listen to you complaining about your back in the morning tomorrow, so no thanks.”

“Rude. Also you know me too well, Your Majesty, I’d never let that down, how you treat your guest.” Kei smirked. “So, how exactly do you plan on making us both fit on that tiny bed of yours?”

“If we sleep on our side it should pass, right?” Kageyama gave him a crooked smile – which wasn’t nearly as scary as his usual forced smiles. “Back to back, I guess..?”

“Unless you were planning on cuddling, yes, back to back would be best.”

Kei snorted as he watched Kageyama splutter and blush, and calling him names.

When he calmed down, Kageyama got up and put his book and paper back on the desk. He told Kei he was going to change in the bathroom and that he could change in the room. Kei did as told once Kageyama brought him the pyjamas from the bathroom and left.

Well, all in all, the situation was probably less bad than Kei had first imagined, he thought. He had imagined they would just get at each other’s head all night and maybe one of them would have killed the other at some point. But it turned out Kageyama could be a more or less civilized person when he wasn’t picked on.

But the night was going to be tough, in Kei’s opinion. He wasn’t used to sharing a bed – when Yamaguchi came over, they used a guest futon – and he was pretty sure Kageyama wasn’t either. Now, Yamaguchi also told him more than once that he moved quite a lot during his sleep. Maybe he should ask for the couch, in the end. He wasn’t sure how heavy of a sleeper Kageyama was and if Kei was to move and slap him during his sleep, he’d honestly understand why he would wake up on the floor in the morning. But then, maybe Kageyama moved a lot too, and they would end up kicking and slapping each other all night long. They wouldn’t get any rest like that. He should really ask for the couch actually.

Kageyama came back pretty quickly, fully changed. Kei went to the bathroom while Kageyama sat down his bed.

While brushing “his” teeth, Kei took a moment to observe the face in the mirror. If he was being honest, if it wasn’t for Kageyama being in front of him in his body, he probably would have forgotten that he was in Kageyama’s body. Being in someone else’s body felt eerily natural after you got used to it. Sure, there were moments when he still got some things wrong – the most recent example being how he missed the mouth with the brush just a few moments ago – but overall, he was… used to it.

He spat the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth and, after a last glance to the mirror, went back to Kageyama’s room.

The setter looked up and stood up and if he looked kind of nervous, Kei chose not to comment on it. It was already awkward enough without pointing out the embarrassment in each other.

“So.”

“So…?”

Kei pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Wall or room side?”

“Uh.”

“Okay, I’m sleeping on the couch.”

“No, no! I mean. I’ll take the wall.”

“Are you sure?”

“Uhh… Yeah?”

Kei snorted and shook his head. He sat on the bed, waiting for Kageyama to climb into bed and take his place. The setter awkwardly did it and was about to lay down, before Kei stopped him.

“The glasses, idiot.”

Kageyama squinted to look at the black frame, having apparently forgotten about them. Kei clicked his tongue and reached for them, carefully taking them off and putting them on the headboard. He heard Kageyama grumble but didn’t anything.

The setter looked at him then, or rather, tried to. He was squinting a lot, and frowning even more than before.

“Don’t try to see, King, you’ll just get a headache and if we were to change bodies back during the night, I don’t want to have to deal with that in the morning.”

Kageyama huffed but closed his eyes and turned to face the wall. “Maybe if you weren’t so short-sighted you wouldn’t have to.”

“Because you think I chose that? I’d rather have your stupidly perfect eyesight, trust me. You’ve never worn glasses in your life, have you?”

“Never. But I didn’t think people could see so blurry until now. How the fuck do you even do when you can’t wear your glasses? Everything is just. Spots of color when I’m lucky. There aren’t even forms, just. Splotches of color.”

“I live in an abstract art world without my glasses.” Kageyama snorted at that, making Kei smirk. “I’ll turn off the light.” He said after a moment, taking his phone in his hand and going to the switch. He heard Kageyama hum in agreement.

He switched off the lights and turned on his phone so he could walk back to the bed. He settled next to Kageyama, trying to leave space between them without being half off of the mattress.

This proved to be harder than he thought, though. As he was now, he felt like he could fall any second. He didn’t really wish to finish the night on the floor but the only way to avoid this would to move back a little. He could feel Kageyama quite close to him already. If he moved just a little, chances were that their bodies would touch.

_Come on Kei, It’s your own damn ass you’d be touching. How bad can it be to move back?_

He started moving, slowly and carefully. He managed to get a little more on the bed, even though he did end up touching Kageyama. He felt the setter move closer to the wall. Ah, well, at least they didn’t touch anymore and he wasn’t on the edge of the bed.

“You could have said something if I was taking too much place” he heard Kageyama murmur.

He shrugged, whether Kageyama would feel it or not and closed his eyes.


End file.
